Looking back on Sunday, 3pm, to Monday, 3 pm, I’m reminded of Van Morrison’s Days Like This, (When it all comes together like the flick of a switch, well, my Mama told me there’ll be days like this). For sure, I’ve had my days where I’ve traveled three hours only to find the lake covered with ice, or worse, to travel five hours only to discover I forgot my mastfoot. I’ve had gigs where I thought it would be the greatest, only to find that my lips just didn’t like meeting the mouthpiece of my trumpet and to me, the sound was awful. Some of you may recall the day this summer when we drove two hours to a windless Mille Lacs, only to learn we had left 4M wind at home. I suspect it’s these experiences that make days like yesterday so incredible. Coach, I can only imagine the frustration you felt to arrive to a dying wind. Been there many times before. I’ve also wrestled with my envy for those who were able to catch it and the storytelling that I didn’t want to hear about, but listened to anyway. To those of you feeling this way now, I understand if this is all the further you want to read. Yet, I suspect you either have the same desire for pain I have, or you’re at that higher level of consciousness where you were with us in spirit, and somehow, feel better that some got a piece of this day.

I had gone to the Bluesfest on Friday and was debating heading up Sunday, given the forecast for rain. Finally, I could see it was looking like an early session at Tott Lot and I’d not be able to live with myself without seeing Walter Trout and Dickey Betts. Sunday afternoon the weather was outrageous over the lake, but for some reason, the rain never really hit Bayfront Park and the music went on. Dickey Betts took me to another world, and at 10am I found the top floor of a parking ramp to play my horn, a daily necessity to keep the embouchure alive. Full moon, lightning all around, the Bridge all lit up, warm Caribbean breeze… Just when I thought it couldn’t get any better a cute blonde drives her car up, complements my sound and invites me to Bev’s Juke Joint in Superior. She says Duluth’s blues band, Azure de Jour is playing and would probably love to have a horn man sit it. I get there close to 11pm and the place is almost empty. Share some stories about the Betts event and the next thing I know, I’m making music with some of the most outstanding bluesmen around. And they dig the sound of the trumpet. It’s like finally breaking through the waves on Superior…anxiety gone and now on to simply sailing. Next thing I knew, the place was packed…best yet, with lots of Black ladies from all over the country who came up for the fest…singing, dancing on the stage…the place was going nuts and I was stretching into new territory… far beyond any differentiation between band and audience. Next thing I know, some of the Lamont Cranston band’s sitting in, Bev hits the stage at 2am, screams, “Screw the cops…let’s party on”. I found a hotel room, slept for a couple hours and woke at 6:30 to E 20MPH in the harbor.
I was on the water at 7:30am and went through my 5.9M, 6.6m and shortly after 9, Eric and Mike show up, followed by a few more sailors from Duluth and Minneapolis for an incredible day of play (hoping for stories from you guys). The wind was solid 6.5M for the lighter sailors and Eric and I needed 7.5M, but trust us, 7.5M on Superior is magic with the terrain we had. Mike was the spectator rock star for a lot of tourists that had never seen kiteboarding. They were almost mesmerized by it and flocked to him when he came to shore. As the day wore on the clouds broke and the whitecaps on Mother Superior let us know we had touched the divine on a day where everything seemed perfect….until I discovered someone had lifted my 6.6M sail and mast. Strange...I’ll address this on another post. Eric, Mike and I shared beer at Grandma’s, realized just how lucky we’d been to share a day like this, and moaned and groaned our soar bodies into our vehicles for the drive home. Half way home Eric let me know about Hal Brooks and this precious gift of life became all the more clear.
So, if you’ve stuck with this thread through my ‘verbosity’, something I think I’m getting a reputation for, just as my Mama said, ‘there will be days like this’…true, in different forms for all of us…but some days, magic just happens, whether on ice, on water, at work, with family, etc., some days it all comes together like a flick of a switch.

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